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ivoras writes “An interview with MSI’s director of US Sales, Andy Tung, contains this interesting snippet: “We have done a lot of studies on the return rates and haven’t really talked about it much until now. Our internal research has shown that the return of netbooks is higher than regular notebooks, but the main cause of that is Linux. People would love to pay $299 or $399 but they don’t know what they get until they open the box. They start playing around with Linux and start realizing that it’s not what they are used to. They don’t want to spend time to learn it so they bring it back to the store. The return rate is at least four times higher for Linux netbooks than Windows XP netbooks.’”

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The new LED Cinema Display features a stunning 24-inch LED-backlit widescreen display with built-in iSight video camera, mic, and speakers in an elegant, thin aluminum and glass enclosure. Available in November for $899, the LED Cinema Display includes an integrated MagSafe charger, three USB 2.0 ports and a new Mini DisplayPort.

While there are a number of tour-related travel applications available for iPhone and iPod touch, Charleston City Slicker ($9.99) appears to be the first to offer a multimedia walking tour — complete with photos of key destinations, audio, and HD video. It also takes advantage of location services to alert you to restaurants and other points of interest. The developer plans tours for other cities in the future.

Whiteox writes “The Australian Prime Minister’s plan to equip high schools with ‘one laptop per child’ may go open source. Kevin Rudd’s $56 million digital revolution will include ‘laptops [that will] run on an open source operating system with a suite of open source applications like those packaged under Edubuntu. This would include Open Office for productivity software, Gimp for picture editing and the Firefox internet browser.’ So far this has been considered for New South Wales and I think other states may follow.”

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Apple TV already let you rent HD movies. Buy standard definition movies the day they come out on DVD. Listen to your iTunes music through your home theater sound system. Watch podcasts. And enjoy your photos on a widescreen TV. Now — thanks to a free software update — Apple TV customers can also purchase HD TV shows, create Genius playlists, and purchase and download music videos.

Dell’s online store is now selling the unlocked Treo Pro smartphone. If that isn’t odd enough, the Pro is selling for $74 less than the going rate at Palm.com. Dell.com is currently offering it for $475 after a limited time instant savings discount. They also including free ground shipping and their inventory lists the devices as in stock and shipping within 24 hours.

Announced in late August, the Treo Pro is Palm’s first radically redesigned Treo in a number of years. The feature packed Windows Mobile smartphone sports a sleek and glossy design, in a much slimmer form factor. For more details you can read our in-depth Treo Pro review and watch our initial unboxing video.

After they tallied the votes, iPhone came up a big winner in the 2008 British Technology Awards. It not only claimed the award for Gadget of the Year but won the Best Mobile Technology, Most Stylish Technology, and Technological Innovation of the Year awards, as well. iTunes also won honors, seizing the Best Music Technology award for 2008.